CLI Usage

DR-Syncer provides a command-line interface (CLI) that allows you to perform disaster recovery operations directly from the command line without needing to deploy the controller.

Installation

The CLI binary is built alongside the controller binary:

make build

This will create both the dr-syncer and dr-syncer-cli binaries in the bin/ directory.

Command-Line Flags

Flag	Description	Required
--source-kubeconfig	Path to the source cluster kubeconfig file	Yes
--dest-kubeconfig	Path to the destination cluster kubeconfig file	Yes
--source-namespace	Namespace in the source cluster	Yes
--dest-namespace	Namespace in the destination cluster	Yes
--mode	Operation mode: Stage, Cutover, or Failback	Yes
--include-custom-resources	Include custom resources in synchronization	No (default: false)
--migrate-pvc-data	Migrate PVC data using pv-migrate	No (default: false)
--reverse-migrate-pvc-data	Migrate PVC data from destination back to source (for Failback mode)	No (default: false)
--pv-migrate-flags	Additional flags to pass to pv-migrate (e.g. "--strategy rsync --lbsvc-timeout 10m")	No (default: none)
--resource-types	Comma-separated list of resource types to include (overrides defaults)	No
--exclude-resource-types	Comma-separated list of resource types to exclude	No
--log-level	Log level: debug, info, warn, error	No (default: info)

Operation Modes

Stage Mode

In Stage mode, the CLI:

1. Synchronizes resources from source to destination namespace
2. Scales down deployments in the destination namespace to 0 replicas
3. Optionally migrates PVC data if enabled

This mode is useful for preparing a disaster recovery environment without activating it.

bin/dr-syncer-cli \
  --source-kubeconfig=/path/to/source/kubeconfig \
  --dest-kubeconfig=/path/to/destination/kubeconfig \
  --source-namespace=my-namespace \
  --dest-namespace=my-namespace-dr \
  --mode=Stage

Cutover Mode

In Cutover mode, the CLI:

1. Synchronizes resources from source to destination namespace
2. Preserves original replica counts by annotating source deployments
3. Scales down deployments in the source namespace to 0 replicas
4. Scales up deployments in the destination namespace to the original replica counts
5. Optionally migrates PVC data if enabled

This mode is used to perform an actual disaster recovery cutover.

bin/dr-syncer-cli \
  --source-kubeconfig=/path/to/source/kubeconfig \
  --dest-kubeconfig=/path/to/destination/kubeconfig \
  --source-namespace=my-namespace \
  --dest-namespace=my-namespace-dr \
  --mode=Cutover

Failback Mode

In Failback mode, the CLI:

1. Optionally migrates PVC data from destination back to source (if reverse-migrate-pvc-data is set)
2. Scales down deployments in the destination namespace to 0 replicas
3. Scales up deployments in the source namespace to their original replica counts

This mode is used to return to the original source environment after a DR event.

bin/dr-syncer-cli \
  --source-kubeconfig=/path/to/source/kubeconfig \
  --dest-kubeconfig=/path/to/destination/kubeconfig \
  --source-namespace=my-namespace \
  --dest-namespace=my-namespace-dr \
  --mode=Failback \
  --reverse-migrate-pvc-data=true

Resource Types

By default, the CLI synchronizes these standard Kubernetes resources:

• ConfigMaps
• Secrets
• Deployments
• StatefulSets
• DaemonSets
• Services
• Ingresses
• ServiceAccounts
• Roles
• RoleBindings
• PersistentVolumeClaims
• HorizontalPodAutoscalers
• NetworkPolicies

Including Custom Resources

To include custom resources in synchronization:

bin/dr-syncer-cli \
  --source-kubeconfig=/path/to/source/kubeconfig \
  --dest-kubeconfig=/path/to/destination/kubeconfig \
  --source-namespace=my-namespace \
  --dest-namespace=my-namespace-dr \
  --mode=Stage \
  --include-custom-resources=true

Specifying Specific Resource Types

To synchronize only specific resource types:

bin/dr-syncer-cli \
  --source-kubeconfig=/path/to/source/kubeconfig \
  --dest-kubeconfig=/path/to/destination/kubeconfig \
  --source-namespace=my-namespace \
  --dest-namespace=my-namespace-dr \
  --mode=Stage \
  --resource-types=configmaps,secrets,deployments

Excluding Resource Types

To exclude specific resource types:

bin/dr-syncer-cli \
  --source-kubeconfig=/path/to/source/kubeconfig \
  --dest-kubeconfig=/path/to/destination/kubeconfig \
  --source-namespace=my-namespace \
  --dest-namespace=my-namespace-dr \
  --mode=Stage \
  --exclude-resource-types=ingresses,networkpolicies

PVC Data Migration

The CLI supports migrating data from source PVCs to destination PVCs using pv-migrate.

Requirements

• pv-migrate must be installed and available in your PATH
• PVCs must exist in both source and destination namespaces

Usage

bin/dr-syncer-cli \
  --source-kubeconfig=/path/to/source/kubeconfig \
  --dest-kubeconfig=/path/to/destination/kubeconfig \
  --source-namespace=my-namespace \
  --dest-namespace=my-namespace-dr \
  --mode=Stage \
  --migrate-pvc-data=true

Passing Additional Flags to pv-migrate

You can pass additional flags directly to pv-migrate for more control over the migration process:

bin/dr-syncer-cli \
  --source-kubeconfig=/path/to/source/kubeconfig \
  --dest-kubeconfig=/path/to/destination/kubeconfig \
  --source-namespace=my-namespace \
  --dest-namespace=my-namespace-dr \
  --mode=Stage \
  --migrate-pvc-data=true \
  --pv-migrate-flags="--lbsvc-timeout 10m --strategy rsync"

Common pv-migrate flags include:

• --lbsvc-timeout: Timeout for load balancer service creation (default: 3m)
• --strategy: Migration strategy to use (rsync, svc, or mnt2)
• --rsync-opts: Additional rsync options
• --no-cleanup-on-failure: Do not clean up temporary resources on failure

For failback:

bin/dr-syncer-cli \
  --source-kubeconfig=/path/to/source/kubeconfig \
  --dest-kubeconfig=/path/to/destination/kubeconfig \
  --source-namespace=my-namespace \
  --dest-namespace=my-namespace-dr \
  --mode=Failback \
  --reverse-migrate-pvc-data=true \
  --pv-migrate-flags="--lbsvc-timeout 10m"